Tuesday 16 March 2010

Božena Němcová

Božena Němcová (1820-1862) is, in Milan Kundera's words, "the mother of Czech prose," and known to every Czech for her novel Babička [The Grandmother] (1855), which has never been out of print in Czech and has appeared in many different illustrated editions. There is an 1891 translation by Frances Gregor into English and a more recent one by Edith Pargeter from 1962. Šechtl & Voseček Museum of Photography in Tábor have an exhibition "The children are my greatest concern," featuring photographs and contemporary documents from the time of Božena Němcová and her descendants, finishing the end of this month and I believe then moving on to Božena Němcová Museum, Česká Skalice, and Czech Museum of Literature (PNP), Prague. Many myths have of course grown up around the life and character of Božena Němcová, some of which are challenged by this exhibition, curated by Yvetta Dorflová of PNP.


Božena Němcová's gravestone (with relief work by Tomáš Seidan and Josef Václav Myslbek), Vyšehrad Cemetery.

Boženy Němcové, Nové Město - Praha 2.

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